Filling device with sound indicator for filling injection syringe

ABSTRACT

A filling device for filling an injection syringe is provided which enables the user to count the intake dosage by means of a sound indicator which may be mechanical, electrical or an electronic sound device. The filling device includes a moveable syringe holder to which is attached a removable syringe that is connectable to a medicinal bottle. The filling device mounts a gear which is moveable one notch at a time to actuate a linear gear to which the syringe is mounted. The device is connected to a microprocessor controlled voice chip device to obtain a suitable voice readout indicating the amount of liquid medicinal uptake by the syringe.

This is a continuation of copending application(s) Ser. No. 7/212,210filed on 06/27/88, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,101.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a new and improved filling device for fillingan injection syringe, the device providing a sound indicator to enablethe user to accurately determine the amount of liquid medicine drawninto the syringe. The filling device of this invention is particularlysuited for insulin injection by patients with impaired vision.

Various prior publications concerning these devices are to be found inU.S. Pat. Nos. 3,840,011; 3,935,883; 3,965,945; 4,018,223; 4,489,766;4,501,306; and, 4,617,016. However, these prior art devices tend to becomplicated and expensive. Moreover, many of these devices do not dealeffectively with the problem of vision impaired persons who arefrequently unattended and must fend for themselves with the danger of anoverdose, underdose, or the use of an incorrect medicine.

Obviously, it would be very beneficial for a vision impaired person tobe able to use a simple, safe and inexpensive assembly for a neeedleinjector with little training, and which would enable independentinjection by the user.

THE INVENTION

According to the invention, the filling device for filling a syringeinjector provides a great driven support for the injector and a biasdriven element such as a ball bearing which is forced into contact withthe gear as it is rotated by the user, and makes a distinct clickingsound as it contacts each gear element. This clicking sound isequivalent to a small and specific medicinal doseage which the user cantranslate into the correct prescribed insulin (or other medicinal)doseage. This sound is also transmitted to the user as a vibration.

If the user feels a miscount has been made, the liquid medicine can bereinjected into the attached medicine container, and the fillingprocedure is then repeated. This represents a simple safety feature, andalso avoids discarding the medicine unnecessarily.

Instead of a mechanical clicking device, an electrical or electronicsignalling system may be used, which may include an audible tone, anartifical voice counter, etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an external view in side elevation showing the assembleddevice prior to filling;

FIG. 2 is an external view in side elevation showing the device duringfilling of liquid medicine from an attached container;

FIG. 3 is an external view in side elevation showing the devicefollowing removal of a filled syringe therefrom;

FIG. 4 is an external view in side elevation, partly broken away,showing the internal components of the device;

FIG. 5 is an external view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an external view in side elevation of the device showing theattachment means of the liquid medicine containers;

FIG. 7 is an external view in side elevation, partly in section showingthe device adapted for use with a microprocessor controlled syntheticvoice counting output;

FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic representation of the system flow diagramemploying the microprocessor control of FIG. 7; and,

FIG. 9 is a system flow diagram of the artificial voice synthesizeremployed in conjunction with the device of this invention to obtain asynthetic voice count output.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The injection device 10 of this invention for filling an injectionsyringe 11 is shown in FIGS. 1-6, in the embodiment used with amechanical sound indicator.

The injection device is constructed typically of an injection moldedplastic exterior case 12 having a removable cover 13. The upper end ofthe cover defines a slot 14 into which is fitted a bottle holder 15attached to an extension arm 16, and which will be described in moredetail, infra. The lower portion of the cover 13 is slotted 17 to enableinterfitting with the fingergrip 18 of a syringe 19 having a barrelportion 20, stem 21, and finger pad 22. The cover 13 is slotted 23 toreceive a locking arm 24 which is biased by a spring 25 through hole 26to enable the locking arm to partly wrap around and engage the barrelportion 20 of the syringe 19.

The cover 13 is slotted 30 to expose gear teeth 31 of a a gear wheel 32,and a "+" and "-" signs are embossed molded onto the face of the cover,thereby enabling a vision impaired user to rotate the gear towards the +sign and load the syringe. If the user looses count of the gear clicks,the syringe can be unloaded by moving the gear in the direction of the"-" sign.

The gear wheel 32 is rotatably mounted within the exterior case 12 andincludes an internal gear element defining gear teeth 33. A linear gearelement 35 is mounted within the case 12, and includes gear teeth 36,and an attached end member 37, which is slotted 38 to enableinterfitting with the finger pad 22 of the syringe stem 21. The gearteeth 36 engage the gear teeth 33 of the internal gear element 33.

The interior of the case 12 defines a slot 40 into which is fitted aspring loaded bearing 41 that is biased against the gear teeth 31. Wheneach individual gear tooth 31 contacts the bearing 41, it will make adistinctly audible click, which as noted, can then be translated into aprescribed patient doseage.

In the assembled position shown in FIG. 1, the unfilled syringe 19 issupported by the injection device 10 by means of the locking arm 24 andinterfitting slot 17 of the cover 30 and slot 38 of the linear gearelement 35.

The bottle holder 15 provides a base 45 having recess bores 46, 47 linedwith rubber washer elements, one washer 48 being shown; these washerssecure bottles 49, 50 in place. The base 45 defines a single protrusion51 at one end, and double protrusions 52, 53 which are embossed thereonto correctly categorize the type of medicine bottle 49, 50 as containedin each recess bore. In the case of insulin, the bottles are correctlyidentified at the pharmacy by suitable labelling, rubber band, etc. Asshown in FIG. 5, the bottle holder 15 can be switched around, and enablea second bottle 50 (or 49) to be used. This is particularly helpful toinsulin users, who may be vision impaired, and whose medicinal needsinclude the need to mix two solutions of insulin in the syringe.

Following insertion of the syringe 19 into the injection device 10 andbottle 49, as shown in FIG. 1, the gear wheel 32 is rotated in the "+"direction to load the syringe, as shown in FIG. 2. The user mustcarefully count the number of clicks which correspond to a prescribedinjection. If the user feels the count is incorrect, the liquid may bereinjected into the bottle without loss of medicine. The syringe is thenremoved from the injection device and bottle, in the direction shown bythe arrows, as illustrated in FIG. 3. For purposes of illustration, thebottle 49 and bottle holder are shown attached to the device 10, but inactual practice, these two components are removed prior to detaching thesyringe; in addition, the device is oriented in a horizontal manner whenthe syringe is detached, rather than in an upright manner, as shown.

FIGS. 7-9 illustrate an embodiment of this invention, used inconjunction with a microprocessor and artificial speech unit, forenabling vision impaired persons to use the filling device, withoutrequiring a visual observation of the syringe or filling device.

The filling device shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 requires a larger exteriorcase than for the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-6 in order to accommodatethe electronic components, but the mechanical features are essentiallythe same. In FIG. 7, the device is shown mounting a syringe 56,including a finger pad 56 A, a container holder 57, and attached liquidmedicine container 58. The syringe is attached to the device by means ofa spring loaded locking arm 62 located medially of the syringe, andattached, moveable end member 60 of a linear gear rack which provides aninterfitting slot 61 for the finger pad 56 A of the syringe. A switch 63is used to turn the device on and off, when the locking arm 62 is openedor closed.

A rotary encoder swith 64 is mounted on gear wheel 32, and actuates theend member 60 to fill the syringe when moved in the "+" or "-"directions, respectively. The encoder is connected to the CONTROL CPU(an 8-bit microprocessor--U8031), and each gear tooth movement of theencoder in the "+" or "-" direction will produce an appropriate signalin the CONTROL CPU. A switch 65 is employed to set the CONTROL CPU atthe zero reading when the syringe 56 is inserted into the device andadjusted to the closed position, shown in FIG. 9.

A programmable read-only memory (PROG ROM) employing a 64K EPROM (2764chip) contains the program voice and LCD readouts for the system. Ifdesired, a DISPLAY produces the LCD visual readout (from an ICM 7211)alone, or in conjunction with the audio speech synthesizer, and enablesthe user to double check the liquid uptake by the syringe.

A LANGUAGE SELECTION MODULE is adapted to provide an appropriatelanguage form (e.g. English, French, Spanish, German, etc.) for theaudio synthesizer. Signals from the PROG ROM and LANGUAGE SELECTIONMODULE are fed to a SPEECH CPU (MM54104N) and speech memory (SPEECHMEM--MM52164-SSR1) in the SPEECH SYNTHESIZER section to produce anappropriate synthesized voice output corresponding to the liquid uptakeby the syringe 56. The SPEECH MEM section is programmed by the 2764EPROM to recall the latest reading and to feed this information to theSPEECH CPU for output to a SPEAKER via an anti-alias filter and aSPEAKER DRIVE (LM 386N).

The device of this invention enables a user to employ common componentsand mechanisms to obtain a mechanical (audible clicking) sound, anequivalent electrically produced audible tone signel, or a voicesynthesized readout or tone, etc. In all cases, the user can ejectexcess liquid medicine back into the medicine bottle if there is anydoubt concerning the accuracy of the liquid uptake reading.

The device of this invention has the capability of being programmable toeffect preset dosages from each of the liquid medicine bottles, whichare different, and such dosages can be readily varied.

I claim:
 1. A filling device for a syringe, including barrel and stemportions, comprising a case portion, and including:movable holding meansfor releasably securing the stem portion of the syringe, and adapted toload or unload the syringe by movement of the stem portion; a lineargear, including gear teeth attached to the holding means, and adapted tomove the holding means; a rotary encoding switch mounted by the caseportion for actuating the linear gear; a microprocessor, and a soundingelement connected thereto, the microprocessor being connected to theencoding switch and adapted to actuate an audible tone, or an artificialvoice from the sounding element; a locking arm mounted on the fillingdevice and adapted to secure the syringe against movement when thesyringe stem portion is moved to load or unload the syringe, the lockingarm being adapted to release the syringe after loading; and, means fordetachably mounting to the filling device a bottle containing liquidmedicine for loading or unloading by the syringe; whereby: movement ofthe encoding switch in one direction actuates the linear gear and causesthe holding means to load the syringe with liquid medicine from themedicine bottle, and movement of the encoding switch in an oppositedirection actuates the linear gear to cause the holding means to unloadliquid medicine into the bottle; and, movement of the encoding switchtransmits a signal to the microprocessor, thereby producing a sound fromthe sounding element coinciding with an increment of movement of theencoding switch, corresponding to an increment of movement of anindividual gear tooth of the linear gear, each sound being equivalent toa predetermined amount of liquid medicine loaded or unloaded by thesyringe.
 2. The filling device of claim 1, including an LCD readout fromthe microprocessor.
 3. The filling device of claim 1, comprising anassembly of the device and a syringe.
 4. The filling device of claim 3,including a bottle holder and bottle of liquid medicine mounted thereon.5. The filling device of claim 1, including an on-off switch for turningthe device on or off, the locking arm being connected to the on-offswitch, whereby securement or release of the syringe from the lockingarm turns the device on or off.
 6. The filling device of claim 1,inlcuding a readout connected to the microprocessor, and a switchconnected to the readout for setting the readout to zero when thesyringe is inserted into the filling device.